EW's Top Five All-Time Greatest Films, TV Shows and More -- Do We Need More Lists?

Entertainment Weekly's upcoming edition (on newsstands June 28) is being trumpeted as their first All-Time Greatest issue. This means lists galore. The sneak peek they've sent along, which includes their Top 5 films, TV shows, albums, novels and plays, is solid enough but adds nothing new to the firmament. We all love "Citizen Kane" and "The Wire" -- do we need another list saying so?

Entertainment Weekly's upcoming edition (on newsstands June 28) is being trumpeted as their first All-Time Greatest issue. This means lists galore. The sneak peek they've sent along, which includes their Top 5 films, TV shows, albums, novels and plays, is solid enough but adds nothing new to the firmament. We all love "Citizen Kane" and "The Wire" -- do we need another list saying so?

1. Citizen Kane --
Directed by Orson Welles, 1941, PG. Telling the story of a newspaper tycoon
based on William Randolph Hearst, the 25-year-old genius Orson Welles poured
his own swaggering, larger-than-life soul into a tragic and exuberant American
saga of journalism, power, celebrity, idealism, betrayal, and lost love.

2. The Godfather
-- Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, 1972, R. Coppola’s tale of crime and
family is the most mythic cinematic landmark of the past half century. It
heightens Mafia violence into a metaphor for American corporate ruthlessness,
presenting Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone as the grandest of movie criminals—a
monster we revere for his courtly loyalty.

3. Casablanca --
Directed by Michael Curtiz, 1942, PG. WWII movie perfection. Hollywood’s most
celebrated love story was made as just an average studio pic but now
exemplifies old-movie magic. Story, lighting, music, craftsmanship, and every
glance between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman resonate with a magnificence
that even the brashest studio mogul couldn’t have predicted.

4. Bonnie and
Clyde -- Directed by Arthur Penn, 1967, R. A touchstone of screen violence, the
exhilarating account of ’30s bank robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker kicked
open the door to the cinematic freedom of the post-studio-system era.

5. Psycho --
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1960, R. The granddaddy of all slasher films (as
well as the most profound horror movie ever made), Hitchcock’s famous thriller
takes the revolutionary step of killing off its heroine (Janet Leigh) halfway
through, all as a way of placing the audience in the mind of a madman (Anthony
Perkins).